Bauer to revive The Face? How lame
The once great style magazine The Face was closed down five years ago. Back then, men’s magazines were doing alright. Things have moved on a lot. Bauer should move on as well. Wasn’t it the company that recently closed Arena finally?
The story, in today’s Media Week, has it that key executives including chief executive Paul Keenan and Geoff Campbell, the managing director of its men’s unit, have signed up former FHM editor Anthony Noguera to oversee the proposals.
My guess is that they had a meeting and the word “iconic men’s style magazine” was said like, I don’t know, a lot.
You can imagine the conversation can’t you? Errr, no I can’t, who would do something so stupid right after they closed down its former stablemate Arena? Do you know the secret reason behind why they closed Arena? I mean the really secret reason? No? Well that’s because there isn’t one. Nobody bought it. No secret.
The only reason that title was kept on life support for some long was
supposed to be that it gave, Emap as it was and now Bauer, access to
certain kinds of advertiser, but even that was not enough to keep it going. I don’t think the target audience is there anymore.
Whatever they do, they should not relaunch this magazine. Certainly not in paper. They are apparently considering relaunching it as a free magazine or a subscription-only title. Neither of these ideas make any sense.
A subscription magazine? Why not do a book club. The same people who didn’t buy Arena will rush out, yes rush, and not by the Face in equal large numbers.
As for a free magazine. The Face was a style magazine. It was good on pop culture. If Bauer want a competitor to Shortlist then the Face is not the magazine for it. That free magazine needs to be broader and more entertainment and not style based. The people for whom the Face had resonance with are long in the tooth and not the 18-34 year old market that free advertisers are interested in. If that is true, then why relaunch a dead brand whose audience is more concerned with Pampers than pop culture?
As for Noguera don’t get me started. Is this the same Noguera who steered FHM happily along its course of girls, girls and oh, more girls. Under Noguera, FHM’s circulation dropped by 13.5% year on year to 272,545. He apparently steered it away “from the lads’ end of the market”.
But look at its website and you get no clue of this. Here are the top links featured on FHM.com when you google it: Kama Sutra, the all-time 100 Sexiest hall…, Keeley Hazell, Kayleigh Pearson and CoverGirls. When you visit the site what do you find — five showcases dedicated to more of the same. Four showcases dedicated to naked girls and one to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (that looks awesome by the way, might have to go back and read the whole thing).
The final option they are apparently considering is a digital option. Okay, maybe, and by that I mean at a push and if you really must, but if that is your only option then really you should do something else.
Here’s a thought, Bauer just closed Arena surely that is a better candidate for a digital revival than the dead and buried Face? Like I said, just a thought.
The Face when it was around was often a joy to read. It defined the times. It looked great and often had good writing. Is any of that going to do wonders online? I don’t think so.
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